Replacing Lionel Messi's Role at Barcelona - Three Options (including who I think they'll sign)
You know.... replacing maybe the best player in the club's history isn't to much to ask is it?
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Okay, before we start - there’s one thing I want to say.
Lionel Messi is arguably the best player of his generation - and depending on who you ask, the best player to ever play the sport; Talking about someone as being a Lionel Messi replacement is dumb.
As a player, he’s irreplaceable.
However, he does have a set role in the team - and that position will need replacing if my tea-leaf reading is correct and he leaves this offseason.
So, with that impossible task I’ve set out to find someone to fill a role similar to what Messi has at Barca at the moment.
I actually think this one is a little more easy to predict, so this article will be a little different to how others in this series have looked.
I’ll talk most about the player I think they’ll sign, and then mention a few prospects to keep an eye on at the end.
Who I Think They’ll Sign (And The Best Fit): Memphis Depay
Memphis Depay has been thrown around as a potential Barca signing for a while now.
Not only is he a favorite of Ronald Koeman from his days at the Dutch National team, he’s also quietly developed into a class player.
I personally think he flies under the radar a little - probably because of the mess of a move to Manchester United.
Anyway, since moving to Lyon he’s become a far more complete and consistent player. And one who is ready for another large move.
He’s also out of contract at the end of the season (at the time of writing), so he won’t have a hefty transfer fee - which, if the talk about clubs struggling financially is true, is a huge win.
But it’s not just those reasons… He’s actually a great fit for a player to take Messi’s role in the current Barca side.
We can look at ‘style’ numbers from SmarterScout to see how frequently a player does a certain action compared to other players in their position.
I’ve taken the data from Depay’s 2020/21 season along with this season (he suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the 19/20 season and only played about 600 league minutes, so I didn’t use that) and compared it with Messi’s style numbers this season.
The main reason I choose two of Depay’s seasons is that it shows that Depay can be either dribble-heavy or link-up heavy depending on what’s required from the team.
We can take these style numbers from the 20/21 Depay season (blue), the 18/19 Depay season (orange) and Lionel Messi this season (silver) in the graph below.
Looking at this, we see a few main similarities:
Both Messi and Depay are elite progressive passers, always looking to get the ball forward and closer to the opposition goal.
Depay this season has been far more likely do dribble than get involved with the link-up play. Personally, I think this is a good sign coming off an injury. If he became more of a pass-first player, you’d have to ask questions about his recovery.
Messi this season almost combines the dribbling of passing of 18/19 season with the dribbling of this season.
Both players are playing deeper roles, which is shown by the fact they’re not receiving the ball in the box a lot.
Positionally, we can see that Memphis Depay drops deep to play those longer passes (yellow). This lines up with the frequent progressive passing numbers we looked at before. However, he does tend to drift towards the left-hand side a lot more:
Compare this to Messi, who definitely has a pocket that he has done the most of his damage in this season - on the right hand side of the 10 position (or as a false 9).
This means that positionally, Depay might have to get used to playing a little more centrally and might overlap with whoever is playing on the left (Griezmann at times) but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Impact-wise, we can also look at Memphis Depay’s numbers and see how they might translate to La Liga. This is done though an algorithm that’s based off past player transfers and success (French league players going to Spain, and the other way around, alongside how players from both leagues perform elsewhere).
With those numbers, we can project the following (on a 0-99 score):
You can see that both Messi and Memphis have elite attacking output for attacking players. Messi’s ball retention metrics are a lot better than what SmarterScout project Depay’s to be - however, Depay’s defending metrics are better than Messi’s.
Now, would I expect Memphis Depay to walk into La Liga and have the same impact as Lionel Messi - definitely not.
However, if that’s the benchmark that you’re setting, you’ll never move on.
What Memphis Depay can do though, is help be a bridge player from the older players at Barca, to the young guns coming through the first team.
I do believe that he’d be an impactful player at Barca, and would suit the coach, and the current attacking midfield/second striker role well.
And as I said before, with his contract expiring at the end of the season, and Messi likely leaving, I can see this move happening.
You can find Memphis’ rookie cards here.
Other Options:
Looking at Lionel Messi’s style numbers from this season (along with the old-fashioned eye test), I’ve looked through other players around that have a similar role and picked a few other options.
These guys are far less likely to get picked up by Barca in the offseason, and are more likely long-term prospects.
(note, it’s obvious that I’m not saying these guys will be anywhere near as good as Lionel Messi - that’s absurd)
The names are linked to their eBay searches.
Angel Gomes: The Englishman was a member of Manchester United’s academy, and is now at Boavista - on loan from Lille. He’s a really underrated prospect at only 20. Obviously not good enough at this stage to walk into the Barca squad, but is having a great season in Portugal and doing it by playing a similar role to what Messi is this season.
Joao Felix: Okay, this will never happen - and I don’t consider Felix an “underrated prospect”. I’d struggle to take anyone seriously if they don’t consider Felix in the top few players aged 22-and-under. So while he’s a long-term prospect due to his age - he’s already incredible. But let’s imagine how bloody good that team would be with Joao Felix, Fati, Pedri, Trincao, de Jong, etc… My lord, I didn’t know how much I wanted this until now. Having said that, it won’t happen. There’s no way Atletico sell him at this stage - and I kinda love the whole “Felix at Atletico” thing.
Donyell Malen: The young Dutch international plays a little further up the field these days, receiving the ball in the box a lot more - and dribbling in more advanced areas. However, he’s shown the ability to drop deep before. He’d give a different look to a side like Barca, that’s for sure.
Final Thoughts
Replacing Lionel Messi is basically impossible. Even in his twilight years, he’s still one of the best on the planet.
I can definitely see Barca signing Memphis Depay as the player to take his role at the Barca. A very good player who is a star at progressing the ball and has worked well with the coach.
He’s a free transfer at the end of the season, which helps a club that’s been struggling money-wise, and is that right age to not burden the teenagers with too much too early.
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